If I were to describe my week, it would be “busy”. Insanely busy. Thus, I decided that for this blog post, I would find a piece of artwork that focused on the aspect of time. Which lead me to finding about this painting by the Spanish artist Salvador Dali called The Persistence of Memory. At a first glance, I would say that this painting is rather interesting. It raised a lot of questions. What did the melting clocks mean? That time is limited? And why do the cliffs in the background seem to stand out so much? What is the red oval in the in the far left corner of the painting? What are the small, black dots on it? How about the figure in the middle? Is it a horse? A rock? A bush? These questions essentially led me to do some research.

According to legomenon.com, the artist himself described it as “hand-painted dream photographs” (Shabi). This relation of the artwork and dreams seem to make sense. If we look at the painting, we can see different things that could suggest a setting of a dream. First of all, the melting clocks are unrealistic. There is a random hard thing in the top left corner that looks like a metal table in the middle of what seems like a deserted area. There’s a weird object in the middle of the painting that isn’t quite an object or a living organism. However, there’s a part of the painting that is rooted in reality – most of the objects are easy to be identified. The cliffs in the background are detailed and the shading is good. Thus, we can conclude that the painting is stating something about reality versus dreams.

Thus, we can look at the main symbol being used: clocks. Supposing that this painting is in a dream, we can say that the clocks (or time) are melting. However, in reality clocks are hard and do not yield to pressure. Perhaps what Dali wanted to state that time is soft or weak when in the dream state. If taken literally, the painting can mean that when in dreams and separated from reality, time doesn’t mean anything – it is slowly fading into nothing. Another piece of evidence to this idea is the red object in the bottom left corner. Upon further inspection, we can see that it is another type of clock – probably a picket watch. The black dots on the watch are ants. By placing ants on the watch, it makes it seem as though time is decaying and slowly wasting away.

Another aspect of the painting is the contrast between the meaning that the painting is showing and the title of the painting: The Persistence of Memory. If time is wasting away, then why would memory be persisting and never dying? Perhaps this a satire what Dali was using, to further emphasize that memory and time are twisted in the dream world (or the mind where dreams occur) and that perhaps memory isn’t everlasting and correct.

Resources:

Shabi, K. “Salvador Dali Persistence of Memory: Meaning of the Melting Clocks.”

Salvador Dali Persistence of Memory: Meaning of the Melting Clocks.

Legomenon Online Literary Journal & Magazine, 29 May 2013. Web. 12 Feb.

2015.

For this week, I wanted to deviate from the normal definition of “artwork”. Since the last two blogs featured artwork that was just looked at for fun, I thought that perhaps I could show how artwork can be used for a more active purpose and the extent to which they might be or might not be useful. As you can see below, this time I am focusing on two different advertisements.

Let me give you a brief introduction for the advertisement on the left. It is a National Geographic 3D crocodile ad that was posted at the bottom of an escalator in Brazil. The words on the top are translated to be: “Ready for an adventure through the Brazilian forests? Wild world with Richard Rasmussen.”

The advertisement on the right is a lot easier for us to understand – this was painted on the set of stairs and was advocating for the movement for more disability friendly buildings.

When I first saw these two advertisements, I must say that I was surprised. Unlike more advertisements I had seen before, these two certainly caught my eye. However, I would say that one is much more effective than the other in multiple ways.

For the National Geographic advertisement, I would say that the main function of the ad is to shock people and thus leave an impression on their mind. This part was very well done. By having the advertisement being 3D makes it stand out – who wouldn’t notice a really realistic looking crocodile at the bottom of the stairs? In fact, when I first saw it, I had thought that it was real. Having the crocodile poking out of the water as if it was about to launch itself at you certainly guarantees that the advertisement won’t be forgotten. However, there were a few things that could have hurt the advertisement’s purpose. First of all, I kind of feel that this scare is a little bit too much. Because it is at the bottom of the escalator, some people may be paying attention to what is at the bottom, especially if there happens to be people in front of them. The shock of being faced with a 3D picture of a dangerous creature could lead to them jerking back and possible stumbling/tripping. If this does happen, it would be hard to have a good impression. In addition, when reading the translation, it was hard to understand what the advertisement was about in one glance. Was it promoting the TV show? Was it promoting touring the Brazilian forests? Was it advertising the Rasmussen man himself? Overall, I would say that this advertisement was too eye catching and wasn’t as effective as it could have been.

On the other hand, I thought that the artwork of Mt. Everest was really effective in communicating the message. First of all, the purpose was clearly stated: building more disability-friendly areas. I thought that it was a brilliant idea to put the ad on the stairs – a place that posed a challenge for some. In addition, by having Mt. Everest looming so high up, even if it was someone that didn’t mind stairs, all of a sudden it seems a little harder.

Personally, I would say that sympathy would work more effectively than shock or fear in an advertisement. What would you say?

Pictures from: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/article-2572059/The-National-Geographic-3D-crocodile-escalator-advert-Brazil-thats-TOO-realistic.html

After last week’s famous “Starry Night” piece of artwork, I thought about focusing on a different type of art – one that is simple and easy to understand. After doing a little bit of research and browsing through quite a few good art websites, I decided on one of Pawel Kuczynski’s drawings. Unfortunately I couldn’t find out the title of this piece.

http://www.artfido.com/blog/paintings-that-will-make-you-question-everything-wrong-in-this-world/

And while I would really like to have given you a short biography on him, his webpage is in polish…so I am going to focus more on the drawing itself. But I’ll just leave you with one thing I do know about his artwork: they are meant to make you think a deeper and pay attention a little more to the world around you.

I would say that the thing that first captured my attention when I was scrolling through a pile of pictures was the contrasting colors. In the sea of brown stands a huge puddle of sky blue and hidden in the background is a pool of red. It made me wonder: why that choice? Looking at the scene being depicted, the brown does seem to fit in. A person is dead – nothing to be happy about. But that leads to the question about the blue and the red. Why does it seem like the dead man and his last moments seem to be the most interesting out of all there is to offer in the world? I think that there are many interpretations. One possible way to look at this is that Kuczynski is commenting about the life of the artist. It always seems that artist never really gets appreciated for anything he does until he’s dead. Suddenly, the prices increase sharply and everyone’s fighting over the last of his art. But what about the artist? Instead of getting that reward, he or she usually dies penniless. Another way of looking at this artwork focuses on the spilled paint itself. Looking closer, you can see that the blue paint is like the image of the sky. Perhaps Kuczynski was saying that unlike most of the men in suits, it is the artist that is able to appreciate the beauty of the world around them. Hence, the contrast between the paint and the dreary surroundings. Another, somewhat similar, interpretation is that Kuczynski was mourning over the loss of another artist. Must the artist die in the middle of the road to catch someone’s attention? Perhaps he was in the middle of painting the sky and fell. But rather than attention towards the artist who was trying so hard to bring something valuable in people’s lives, everyone is focusing on the spilled paint.

But of course, any of these ways of looking at this drawing can be what Kuczynski was aiming for. Hey, maybe all of them are correct in one way or another. What do you think this painting represents in relation to our modern day society today? Why is the background brown? Why is the artist seen in such clothing in comparison to everyone else? Why is everyone looking away from him? Why the sky?

http://legomenon.com/starry-night-meaning-of-vincent-van-gogh-painting.html

Painted in 1889 by Van Gogh, Starry Night was one of the first pieces of famous art that I came to know. I remember having to draw make a replica of this artwork with oil pastels in middle school for an art project and later on getting a puzzle set of this picture. However, with the many times I have come into contact with this piece of artwork, I have never really thought much about the meaning behind it all. Thus, I thought it was only appropriate to do a little bit of research.

First, a little about the artist himself. Van Gogh is known to be slightly on the crazy side. Everyone knows of the incident of him cutting off his ear after a fight. According to sources, Van Gogh was in a mental asylum when he painted this depiction of the landscape he saw through his window. Van Gogh was also known to be an Impressionist. For those that aren’t very familiar with this term, Impressionism was a movement in the field of art that was characterized with sketch-like features with bright colors. The brush strokes were in some ways unprofessional, and the paintings during this movement often the artist’s impression of everyday life.

As for the impressions left on the viewers, there has been a mixture of feelings and attempts to decipher Van Gogh’s masterpiece. Some say that the painting had a religious intent. They claim that the stars represented religion and the cypress tree as him, a shadow trying to reach for the stars. Others went on even further and noted the number of stars (eleven) as a symbol of Joseph’s eleven brothers from the Bible, who didn’t appreciate what Joseph had to offer – just like how Van Gogh’s Impressionism and actions got him placed in an asylum. While all these theories seem viable, it is impossible to really tell what Van Gogh was thinking at this time.

To me, however, this painting represents something different. When I first looked at the Starry Night, I was amazed at the strokes that Van Gogh used. While the piece looked slightly messy. Unlike what I was used to seeing, the brush strokes were broad and there wasn’t much small details. Buildings seemed like they were painted with four of five strokes, and the trees were just lumps in the distance. But at the same time, it was this lack of detail that made it so exciting and new to me. Rather than carefully mixing the colors, Van Gogh used the contrast of the different hues of blue to depict the wind, the sky, and the hills. Individual strokes seems to blend in with each other to make up something much more spectacular. Another thing that caught my attention was the tall, brownish-black mass that rose up to the sky in the far left side of the painting. I couldn’t tell at first what it was – all I knew was that it made me feel a little uncomfortable. It seemed so out of place in the picture and had no identifiable form. This form added to the mystery of the painting, and led me wonder what could be out there under the starry night.

Resources:

Samu, Margaret. “Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History.” Impressionism: Art and

Modernity. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2014. Web. 26 Jan. 2015.

Shabi, K. “Starry Night: Meaning of the Vincent Van Gogh Landscape Painting.”

Starry Night: Meaning of the Vincent Van Gogh Landscape Painting.

LegoMenon, 3 June 2013. Web. 28 Jan. 2015.